THE BIG PICTURE
TRENDS & ISSUES
INTERNATIONAL INVESTORS SWOOPED IN WHEN THE U.S. ECONOMY FALTERED. NOW THAT THE DOLLAR IS REGAINING STRENGTH, THEY’RE STILL HERE.
Foreign Magnet
by Robert Springer
merica – the land of the free, home of the brave and beacon to international real estate investors? While Francis Scott Key might spin in his grave with that last phrase, the entrepreneur in him would be astonished at how much foreign investors crave American resi- dential real estate. Foreign investment in U.S. real estate has surged, reaching $87.3 billion of A
completed deals in 2015 after only notching $5 billion in 2009, according to a January 2016 Bloomberg Business report citing data from Real Capi- tal Analytics Inc. Chinese investors are now the top foreign purchasers of U.S. homes and condominiums, finally surpassing Canadian investors. And Chinese investors have expen- sive tastes, purchasing homes with an
average value of $831,800, far ahead of second-place buyers from India at $460,200, according to the National Association of Realtors. For the first time, clients from China (People’s Republic, Taiwan, and Hong Kong) accounted for the largest share of sales transactions at 16 percent, up from 9 percent since this data was collected in 2007. In contrast, purchases by Canadian
14 | think realty magazine | may :: june 2016
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